11 December 2015

The "Mini Harley"-

In past Winters we've had two different motorcycles here in Destin... The old R80RT BMW and the '89 GoldWing.
Both were rusty messes when we headed back North in Spring. There simply is no way to keep the saltwater spray from attacking them.There is a small back porch/patio on this unit. It's too small to comfortably cover either of the motorcycles.

We sit on our balcony and watch as rental scooters whine by all day. Most of these little bikes are of the 50cc variety, screaming by as renters have throttles "wide open" and the little bikes reach all of 41 mph, getting almost 100 miles per gallon.And the thought finally hit me:Most of our shopping here is within a 10 minute drive. It's actually damaging to the Dodge/Cummins diesel truck to run such a short distance. If I could buy a small scooter I could do virtually all our shopping on the thing.

So I looked on eBay and was surprised.Most of the offerings there were a little more than I wanted to pay. It was then I realized one of our neighbors at home has a 49cc Yamaha that sits in his unheated garage all Winter long.I called him:"Hey, would you consider renting your Scoot to me for the Winter?"My thought was that I'd pay him $200/monthly or so to cover wear and tear on his machine.He agreed to let me use the scooter, but balked at the idea of my paying him anything. I'm uncomfortable not paying to use the machine. Heck, I'm uncomfortable just borrowing it.He's uncomfortable charging me anything for the machine when he wouldn't be using it during the Winter anyway.We were both uncomfortable.

Sara Jean and I went for a walk in the opposite direction we normally go.About a mile away from home we passed the scooter rental place and saw the bike you see above, sans the rear topcase, for sale. It was marked for sale at $475. "We need to check that out", she said.So in I went to talk with the proprietor.

"I have some new topcases to put on it if you'd like" he said."Throw one in at the $475 price and you've got a deal", said I.And he offered his hand for me to shake.It fits EASILY on the back patio.

Now I make my way to buy a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread at the screaming speed of 41 mph.And there's a smile on my face the entire way.